Wie lassen sich gesellschaftliches Engagement und Kerngeschäft verbinden (Webinar auf Deutsch)?
In recent years, expectations of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have changed. An understanding of CSR that does not view corporate commitment as an activity that functions separately from the core business has become increasingly widespread. The combination of core business and social commitment can both mobilize expanded resources for social impact and provide positive impulses for business success.
On November 17, EVPA and Wider Sense invite you to discuss with you what this means in practice about the different ways in which companies can realize their social commitment through their core business and their corporate foundation.
The event will be particularly beneficial for representatives of companies and corporate foundations who wish to learn more about how they can position their social commitment more strategically in the future.
Please note that this event will take place in German. Please confirm your registration with Simon Kaiser, kaiser@widersense.org.
Moderator: Anja Koenig, EVPA DACH representative
Speakers:
- Michael Alberg-Seberich, Managing Director of Wider Sense and co-author of the book The Corporate Social Mind (more here)
- Karoline Heitmann, Corporate Initiative Manager at EVPA and co-author of the article published in Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Rise of the Corporate Social Investor (more here)
Karoline Heitmann
Karoline Heitmann is Corporate Initiative Manager at the European Venture Philanthropy Association's (EVPA). She is leading EVPA's research on corporate social investing and is a published author on topics such as employee engagement and strategic alignment between corporates and corporate foundations.
Next to this, she organises events for corporate social investors (such as corporate foundations, impact funds, accelerators, social businesses) across Europe and supports the organisation of the C Summit, Europe's first and only corporate philanthropy and social investing summit.
Michael Alberg-Seberich
Michael is Managing Partner at Wider Sense. He is responsible for the development of business and people. He heads the advisory work of Wider Sense and handles all questions relating to philanthropy, CSR and impact investing.
Michael is especially passionate about social justice work with a focus on education. Besides the advisory assignments, Michael also works with our clients as an organisational developer, facilitator and coach. Michael regularly writes for Alliance Magazine, Center for Effective Philanthropy and other blogs. He has been asked to speak on a variety of industry topics.
Michael volunteers as the chairman of the Deutsche Youth For Understanding Stiftung (Foundation). He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Deutsche Youth For Understanding Komitee e.V., Schüler helfen Leben e.V. and Philanthropy Impact. He is a member of the supervisory board of Karuna Sozialgenossenschaft eG (social cooperative).
Before taking over Wider Sense (formerly Beyond Philanthropy), Michael was managing director at Active Philanthropy and held various operative positions at the Bertelsmann Foundation. He was a Project Manager in the field of Democracy, Human Rights and Tolerance Education and for strategy development in politics and federalism reform. Michael also managed the Carl-Bertelsmann Prize 2007 "Civic Engagement as an Educational Goal".
Michael studied North American Studies, Anthropology and International Law at the University of Bonn and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. After his graduation, he worked as language and cultural affairs lecturer at the University of Oxford.
Anja Koenig
Anja-N. Koenig is an impact investing, entrepreneurship and sustainable development expert as well as a trained facilitator in collaborative innovation and system change processes. She has more than 20 years of professional experience in the DACH region, (Central and Eastern) Europe, MENA, Africa, Asia and Latin America working with public and private sector clients on impact strategies, innovative finance and public private partnerships as well as incubating innovative projects for impact.
Until 2018 she supported entrepreneurship development in emerging countries at Swisscontact Foundation in Zurich. In 2015, she co-initiated and led Finance for Change at the Impact Hub Berlin to promote and encourage the use of finance for impact amongst philanthropic funders, business angels, VC funds and financial institutions. Between 2010 and 2014 she researched ways to strengthen the social investment market in Turkey, supported by Rockefeller Foundation and Mercator Foundation, before designing and leading the JP Morgan Chase Foundation Social Investment Programme at the Entrepreneurship Centre of Sabanci University in Istanbul. She also worked with Financial Advisory Services of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Frankfurt, including in the impact evaluation of German Development Bank KfW and with PwC Transaction Services of PwC in Nairobi. She came to Kenya in 2004 as a long-term government advisor appointed by German Development Agency GIZ. She spent several years with economic consulting companies in London, advising public and private sector clients on public-private partnerships, regulation and policies in (renewable) energy, water and telecommunications sectors.
Since 2015 she has been co-host of the Impact Investing Roundtable Berlin (now Impact for Breakfast Berlin), a member of Women in Social Finance and a mentor with impact career organization On Purpose Berlin and German women career platform MentorMe. She holds an MBA from University Mannheim/Germany, a diploma in Political Science and Economics (IEP Science Po Paris/France) and a Post Master's Certification in Development Studies (GDI, Germany). She obtained additional leadership and facilitation qualifications inter alea from the Presencing Institute at MIT (Theory U), the Generative Facilitation Institute and the LEAD Academy, both in Berlin.